1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to flywheels, and more particularly, to a flywheel set for exercise equipment, wherein the flywheel set integrates a magnetic damper unit and a transmission therein.
2. Description of Related Art
In the recent years, with the rapid progress of industry and business as well as the decline of agriculture, more and more people have moved into metropolises. This increasingly raises urban population density. In the same period, the fast development of technology has caused over-exploiting of our resources and more air pollution in the ambient environment. There is less and less space for people to exercise outdoors. As a result, indoor activities have become the best choice for modern urban residents to keep their physical health by doing exercise anytime and anywhere. Exercise equipment developed for this end includes climbers, elliptical trainers, stationary bikes and more. For allowing exercise in limited indoor space, efforts have been paid to improve these exercise apparatuses in terms of inner space efficiency.
Taiwan Patent No. 1372070, for example, has provided a structure integrating a crank and a load wheel coaxially. The prior patent has a frame with a main shaft pivotally mounted thereon. Cranks are attached to two ends of the main shaft. Also coaxially mounted around the main shaft are a driving wheel set operated by the cranks and a driven wheel set having a load wheel. A multiplying wheel set that is set on the frame next to the load wheel has a small wheel and a large wheel rotating coaxially. The active wheel set uses a linking member to drive the small wheel, while the large wheel uses another linking member to drive the driven wheel set. With the foregoing configuration, the cranks that drive and the load wheel that is driven can be put on the same axle, thereby reducing the floor space taken by the resulting exercise equipment.
However, though the coaxial arrangement of the driving wheel set and the flywheel in prior patent described above is somehow helpful to reduce the volume of exercise equipment, for ensuring the conventional flywheel to function normally, the large and small wheels of the multiplying wheel set have to be set on the frame separated from the flywheel. This limits the possibility of further minimizing the exercise equipment. In addition, for fabricating the flywheel set, the entire exercise equipment has to be put into the production line so as to allow works to install the parts one by one onto the exercise equipment, causing the fabrication quite time-consuming and labor-intensive.
For all the above reasons, it is desirable to have the known design further improved.